This Newly Outed Reality Show Star Is a Reminder There’s No Shame in Being ‘Gay for Pay’

Earlier this week we learned Brandon Myers — a young reality show personality who appeared on the homoerotic reality competition Bromans and the MTV reality drama Ex on the Beach — once starred in a “gay for pay” porn scene with the studio English Lads. The Brandon Myers gay for pay scene in question involved him stripping naked, getting massaged and fooling around with another man.

The scene was Myers’ second involvement with a gay website. The first Involved a nude photoshoot with Fit Young Men, a site that “celebrates the male physique” (a nod towards physique pictorials of yesteryear).

Back in the ‘90s and early 2000s, people might have mocked Myers for being “gay for pay.” After all, his role in Bromans and Ex on the Beach both capitalized on his heterosexuality, pairing him with one or more female lovers as he struts about shirtless. So what’s he doing proclaiming his virile heterosexuality while getting handjobs from a bro on the side?

But we should keep some things in mind about the gay for pay Brandon Myers scene and “gay for pay” guys in general:

The Joel Jenkins and Brandon Myers porn scene from Straight Lads

Sexuality exists on a spectrum

Sex researcher Alfred Kinsey said that most human sexuality falls on a continuum between zero (exclusively heterosexual) and six (exclusively homosexual). Myers, like most people, is probably not a zero on the scale. A one on the Kinsey Scale, for example, represents someone “predominantly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual.”

We should respect Myers’ self-identification

While the idea of a “gay for pay” performer identifying as straight may ruffle the fur of catty know-it-alls, it’s much more interesting and informational than if he’d simply resigned to letting others label him as gay or bi.

The fact that Myers continues to identify as straight teaches us something about the complexity of human desire, profit motive and the way straight men see themselves in the light of same-sex desire — all information that can help to better understand human sexuality.

We should all be as open Brandon Myers is to exploring our own sexuality

We should invite straight men to dabble in gay sex without making them feel like it’s going to “mark them for life.” Many of us want that same freedom while exploring our own sexuality, so it should be granted to others.

When we start labeling people based on whether or not they’ve had sexual contact with penises or vaginas, we potentially create incentives for people to avoid either one. (Consider the so-called “Gold Star Gay” who has never had sex with a vagina and is somehow considered “superior” to any gay man who has.)

So if you find yourself mocking Myers for being a straight guy who has (on-camera) gay experiences under his belt, ask yourself whether you’d get turned on doing the same thing with someone you don’t think you’re attracted to. It takes guts to do that, not to mention allowing others to watch and comment.

What do you think about this gay for pay Brandon Myers past? Sound off in the comments.